I guess Or you could just use real world data, like violence, oppression, disease, standard of life, etc and make your judgement. That seems like the much more reasonable thing to do.
Do you let "real world data" determine the quality of your life with your family? Or do you use only your perception of your family life determine that for you?
Well for the sake of this thread, I assumed we were talking about the "Golden Age" of mankind as a whole. Not just me. It wouldn't matter how much my life sucked, I would still say that we are living in the Golden Age of mankind right now.
To the Romans, the Golden Years would have been at the height of their expansion, yet those being conquered would have had another perception of that period. Germans would have considered the period of 1933 to 1941 the golden years but the Polish, French, Belgians, and Dutch at a minimum would have greatly disagreed. It is all about personal perception and your perception is now, but there are those in the middle east, Ukraine, areas of Africa and other places that would greatly disagree with you on this view.
Do you not understand what "as a whole" means? It means that the average human being today is living better than anytime in history.
There are 10's of millions that would disagree with your point of view. Do you fathom that just because you didn't consider something does not disqualify its validity?
They can disagree with me all they want. I have facts on my side. Like I said, I'm not discussing this on an individual level like you seem to want to do, I'm talking about as a whole. It is simply 100% fact that the average person is living better than anytime in history at this moment. I don't care if some little kid might be living in a cave eating rats for dinner in the Middle East. That kid does not represent the average person.
Check or update your "facts" After the population explosion in the 60's the poverty levels throughout the world have increased greater than the population increases. 60% of the populace make up 15% of the income. That means for 40% of the world population life is so-so to great and for 60% of the populace there is nothing to be giddy about. So, as a "whole" life was better before the population explosion.
